Squantum hosts 'Secret Garden' tour and begins July 4th celebration

Saturday

Jun 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2009 at 1:35 AM

The sun was shining for the first half of the day at least, as residents of Squantum enjoyed a weekend of activities including a secret garden tour of 11 gardens and the kickoff of a week of events to celebrate the 100th anniversary next week of the annual Fourth of July parade in this seaside community. Fireworks are scheduled for 9 tonight.

Sue Scheible

Dr. James Will and his wife, Eleanor, have moved from Squantum to Weymouth, but they came back Saturday to take in the fourth annual “Secret Gardens” tour sponsored by the Seaside Gardeners.

“I used to be a member of the Seaside Gardeners, and I was curious to see what they have today,” Eleanor Will said.

The Wills were among nearly 100 people who visited 11 gardens in Squantum, a neighborhood surrounded by water, between 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

“We were very pleased with the turnout,” said Deni Sindell, the club’s vice president.

Most of the visitors, who paid $20, were from Squantum, but several were from other South Shore communities. Many had heard about the tour from family members.

Although the day began with sunshine, clouds and fog rolled in by early afternoon.

Even with the mist, the views at 240 Bellevue Road, the home of Ruth Swanson-Sawicki and her husband, Mark Sawicki, were unusual.

“Who would guess that just a few years ago, only yews existed in this garden,” the tour guidebook said. The couple moved from Needham four years ago to be close to the water and set about replacing a row of yews with a variety of flowering plants and vegetables, from pumpkins to hot peppers.

The couple bought a bungalow and immediately began renovating, in steps. They added a story to the house and redid the terraced garden that stretches around the outside of the house.

‘‘They do the most remarkable combination of vegetables and plants,’’ club member Marie Stamos said.

Swanson-Sawicki has added a wide variety of flowering plants, annuals, perennials and vegetables. She showed tour participants where to find the lamb’s ear, bleeding hearts, peonies from her grandmother’s house in Roxbury, and her aunt’s lilies, and where the sunflowers would eventually appear.

She said the garden was a major undertaking and her husband relied on the help of a neighbor with a backhoe to pull out the yews. The stonework was already in place on the terraced side entrance, and a person climbing the entrance walkway goes past tomatoes, zucchini and squash. The sunflowers and hot peppers are in another location.

A fireworks show was held in Squantum at 9 p.m. Saturday. The fireworks barge was 375 yards from shore.

“The fireworks were not very high, but you got to see them pretty well because the cloud ceiling was so low, they were close to us,” Deni Sindell said. She and her husband, Phil, watched the show at the sea wall with a group of neighbors.

There was also a morning road race Saturday, and children and their parents enjoyed a family day at the Squantum Elementary School.

The annual Fourth of July parade in Squantum will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday. This is the 100th anniversary of the parade.